[Avodah] heichalos hatuma

[Sholom Simon via Avodah]

Off line, I had the following exchange with R Micha, and, with his 
persmission, I am putting it up here, edited for brevity/clarity.

I wrote:

A friend and I were learning a piece from the Nesivos Sholom, and, as 
his wont, his last paragraph seems to go off on a completely 
different tangent than the rest of the piece.

The one we were reading last night introduces concepts I've never 
heard of before -- and I was wondering if you could help me out.

He was talking about parshas Parah (which was already a tangent) and 
using that to show that we must have complete faith that every letter 
in the torah is to help make us holy (just as all the keilim in the 
Mishkan do so, and just as we don't fully understand why the 
repetition from Terumah-Tetzaveh and Vayakhel-Pekudei for all these 
keilim<-- that's how he started this tangent).

Then the first sentence of the last paragraph is this:

U'mishum kach kori'im parshas para lifnei chag ha'pesach, d'asyia (is 
brought) b'chesed l'avraham hakdumon (is that a sefer?) she'shloshim 
yom kodem chag hapesach motzi'im yehudi mi'shloshim heichalos hatuma, 
b'chol yom yotzei mi'heichal echad shel tuma, ad she-bechag hapesach 
yitaher l'gamrei v'yihiye ro'i l'kabal ha'kedusha v'ha'haorah shel 
pesach shebo nihye chelek m'am ha'nivchar, v'kriyas haparsha 
misogeles l'taher ish yehudi mi'tumaso.

I actually think I do understand the Hebrew.

But what is a "heichel hatuma" (clearly not the 50 levels of 
tuma).  And there are 30 of them?  And this concept of getting 
purified for 30 days _before_ Pesach Rishon is a new one to me.

==============

R Micha wrote back (again, edited):

30 days before Pesach we learn hilkhos Pesach. Connected?

The Zohar Bereishis and then again on Pequdei discuss heikhalos 
hatum'ah. But I don't know Zohar, so I went to chabadpedia.co.il. 
Their entry for heikhalos hatum'ah is simply "see qelipah". But upon 
chasing that link, the qelipah entry doesn't contain the letters 
"heikhel" (ctrl-F check).

The little I can see from the Zohar is that a navi sheqer gets his 
prophecy from the heikhalos hatum'ah, and that Noach, upon getting 
drunk, opened their doors.

But Eimeq haMmelekh says there are 4 heilakhos, not 30. http://j.mp/2n9paMd

And Reishis Chokhmah, translated the Zohar Pequdei, says there are 7 
http://www.sefaria.org/Otzar_Midrashim,_Hekhalot,_The_Seven_Palaces_of_Impurity?lang=bi 
and that gives definitions and names.

R' Yaakov Haber (of Ramat Bet Shemesh and Mosaic Press) points out 
that it's 50 shaarei tum'ah, not madreigos -- gates, not levels....

He proves that there are 50 gates that allow us to connect to 
qedushah.  49 of them were blocked up, and therefor tamei. One gate 
we maintained -- distinct Jewish identiy (language, dress, names). 
There were therefore 49 gates to clean out, to turn the gates from 
tum'ah to taharah to qedushah.

======================

(again: gates, not levels)

Thoughts, anyone?

-- Sholom